By Henry Akubuiro
Over 10 years after its launch as an online publication for Visual Arts, African Arts With Taj (www.africanartswithtaj.com) steps into a new phase as A-ARTs.
Published by Translucent S.I. Communication as an online news and review, A-ARTs is focused on giving critical contents to The Arts of Africa, but with specialisation on Visual Arts. Edited by Tajudeen Sowole, A-ARTs publishes news and reviews from other writers outside the Translucent S.I. Communication group.
“It’s been an exciting journey into the digital world of publishing on The Arts, since August 2011 when the publication started as African Arts with Taj,” said Sowole, Executive Partner, Translucent S.I. communication.”
Now rebranded as A-ARTs, the publisher explained it “simply means African Arts.” As a digital medium in The Arts of Africa, according to Sowole, has been a broad window for quite a number of artists, scholars, art galleries, art dealers, among others, who visit the site daily. Publishing an average of two reviews, weekly, over the past ten years, Sowole enthused, “is the strength of A-ARTs that has enriched Africa’s creative lexicon, particularly in visual arts.”
Apart from covering art activities from Africa over the past 10 years, A-ARTs has published biennales, art fairs, auctions, among others that featured art of Africa in Europe, U.S, Middle East and other parts of the world.
As art from Africa gets stronger, across the world in the next decade and beyond, A-ARTs, Sowole assured, will keep expanding its scope. “The culture space for artists of African descent is growing, so are the prospects; we at A-ARTs are set to keep pace with the tide,” Sowole said.
A-ARTs is published with pages such as Art & Design, Heritage, Music, Film & Theatre and Book. With over 1,900 reviews, news and interviews, published in the past ten years, A-ARTs has been a strong voice for The Arts of Africa.